Why Do Both Men and God Favor Wildness?

It doesn’t take me a second to name my top three films:

1. The Lord of the Rings
2. The Godfather
3. Legends of the Fall

I watched Legends of the Fall (1994) at the beginning of 2022. A few months later, I moved to SoCal, where I was born again—and I haven’t watched it again.

Because this film is too much—too real, too painful.

I can finally write about it now that I understand the truth behind Tristan’s tragic life. And the truth has set me free.

Legends of the Fall contrasts two men and two women:

• The elder brother, Alfred, and the second son, Tristan.
• Susannah, the woman all three brothers loved, and Isabel, the Native American girl they grew up with.

The contrast hinges on this one theme: wildness.

And wildness—often misperceived as carelessness, recklessness, or elusiveness—
is, actually, rooted in something extremely rare: faith.

“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8

In this article:

• Why are we drawn to wildness
• What is true wildness
• Why God favors wild men and women
• Revelation on “following rules”
• Bonus: The truth about Tristan

Why are we drawn to wildness

Let’s first clarify what wildness is not:

• Wildness is not being dirty, unkempt, rude, or classless.
• Wildness is not sexual perversion.
• Wildness is not taking risks in vain or for vanity.
• Wildness is not irresponsibility or impulsiveness.
• Wildness is not selfishness or a fear of commitment.
• Wildness is not ADHD or double-mindedness.

Men and women who embody these facades of “wildness” have deceived themselves and others—this is why women are obsessed with good-for-nothing bad boys, and men fall prey to Jezebels and Delilahs.

However, that tells us one thing:

We are drawn to wildness—even if it’s only the appearance of it.

So, what is that appearance of wildness?

It is the appearance of freedom—

• not bound by anything, tied to anyone, or restricted by any place;
• no overthinking, no fear, no grudges, no insecurity, no hesitation—

yes, that’s what we desire and are hopelessly attracted to: freedom.

Even if it’s merely an illusion of it.

The world can only try to fake the appearance of freedom to appear wild—yet these people are bound by Satan, enslaved by sin, and under multiple curses. No matter how hard they strive or hustle, they cannot escape the doom of loneliness, poverty, depression, or premature death.

“For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.” 2 Peter 18-19

Now you know where this is going:

That whole package of freedom is promised in the gift of salvation—dying to oneself and being born again in the Spirit. For whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

What is true wildness

“But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:36-37

Susannah says she will wait for Tristan forever—yet when he returns, she says, forever turned out to be too long.

Although I understand why she gave up waiting and married Alfred, her choice reveals one thing:

She lacks faith. She lacks faith because she has nowhere to anchor her hope.

To fulfill your purpose and prosper in this life, you need three things:

• Hope for the future—from vision and prophecy;
• Faith in the presence—from hearing God;
• Joy in the Lord—from the fear of the Lord.

Isabel is the opposite. She is so certain since youth that she is going to marry Tristan.

What if I told you that she knows what she knows—and wants what she wants—because her spirit perceives the future?

I know so because I am so.

I can prophesy without wavering.
I can announce my dreams and visions that scare people away.
I can keep going through all the noise of doubts, discouragements, and “theories of impossibility”—even from friends and family, or from professionals and experts.

Because I see the ending, which sustains my hope; I hear from God, which sustains my faith; and I fear the Lord, which strengthens me with joy.

This confidence is often mistaken for ignorance, innocence, or—maliciously—pride.

Wildness is confidence rooted in intimacy with God.

“Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” Hebrews 10:35-36

Years later, Isabel has fully grown up, yet Tristan can still recognize her by the assurance in her eyes.

Susannah, however, being the only one who committed suicide, is taken by the devil in the end exactly as he got Judas—through guilt because of the wickedness in her heart.

Now, if you read on, where I’m going to dissect Alfred vs. Tristan, you will discover why Tristan marries Isabel and Susannah chooses Alfred.

Because you don’t get what you want—you get who you are.

Why God favors wild men and women

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6

Alfred says to Tristan, I followed all the rules, man’s and God’s. And you, you followed none. And they all loved you more.

First of all, don’t be fooled by Alfred’s sincerity—he is sincerely wrong.

Just like Christian sentimentality that worships the image of a good good Christian, yet these people indeed are the tail—while fear is their head, making decisions for them so they will never fulfill their purpose.

You cannot please God by following rules. You certainly will not win love from people by playing their rules.

God is looking for faith. Men answer to strong character.

You are not keeping God’s commandments out of love but trying to win His love. You are not following men’s rules because you’re a good man, but because you dread confrontation and inconvenience—because you fear men.

Favor with men is an evidence of favor with God.

Alfred says that they all love Tristan more because he follows all the rules, yet Tristan follows none. Maybe it’s exactly because Alfred follows all the rules God never asked him to follow.

In the circus, they chain a baby elephant up, and even when the elephant grows up and can easily break the chains, he won’t even try—because the peg is in his mind.

That’s what happened to Alfred and the majority of us—we are pegged to the school system from childhood. We learn human wisdom and man-made rules, trained for useless knowledge and programmed to get a job so we can forget why we were even born.

This is why—Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, which is good, acceptable, and perfect.

People like Alfred often fall prey to indignation—like the prodigal son’s elder brother.

Does the Lord show favoritism? No.

But He certainly does not appreciate the self-righteous, who count all their good deeds before God with bitterness toward their prodigal brothers.

Our good deeds are merely filthy rags to God. And He says,

“I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” Exodus 33:19

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Revelation on “following rules”

In late May, during my 21-day water fast, the meaning of render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s dawned on me—

and just like those who have had an authentic testimony of encounter with the Lord, I had the same symptom—I laughed so hard, and I could barely stop.

I didn’t live by that Word until 2020. I didn’t fully grasp the Word until 2025.

I was raised to be Alfred and Susannah, but as soon as I left my father’s house for college, the Lord started to pluck out all the doctrines and rules of men and began to teach me His way and His law—

Yes, supernaturally, since I never read the Bible until September 2022, and the first time I read the Gospel of Matthew, I knew Jesus is God.

My parents are the Alfreds, who sincerely believe they are blameless—and are sincerely wrong. They do not know the secret of the Lord—and that is not to rigidly follow rules but to seek Him.

Once you have intimacy with God, you no longer fear—and fear is the very reason people follow rules that God never made.
You begin to flow.
Faith becomes effortless.
You will have sound judgment and great execution;
you will conquer the Promised Land that is inhabited by giants;
you will shine so bright that you cannot be hidden;
you will be free as the wind, wild as the lions of the safari;
you will sleep tight when there’s no money in your bank;
you will laugh and praise the Lord when troubles come suddenly and together—

Because you see the ending. You hear the Voice. You delight in the Lord—and now, you are truly wild, unsubduable but will subdue the earth and replenish it, untamable but will tame the devil to silence—

because you have known the truth, and the truth has set you free.

(To live in such freedom, check out this post I published on Lighthouse):👇🏻

You Must Die

This picture was precisely me that night I finished my last shift being an intern doctor, where I escaped—not “ended”—my career in medicine.

Lighthouse

Bonus: The truth about Tristan

So why did I never watch Legends of the Fall again?

At first, because it was painful.

But now, my spiritual discernment has revealed to me the truth behind all these pains: